The present invention relates to the field of sweeteners and more particularly to new carbohydrate sweetener compositions.
Sweeteners are a critical ingredient in the food supply. Development of convenience oriented foods has lead to increased consumption of sweeteners. Demand for lower calorie food products has led to various attempts to reduce the sweetener contribution of calories. The primary means to accomplish this objection has been through the use of artificial or high intensity sweeteners such as saccharin and aspartame.
The use of caloric sweeteners other than sucrose such as fructose has become more common in recent years. Fructose has been reported to be from 1.0 to more than 1.8 times as sweet as sucrose when evaluated under similar conditions (Hardy et al, J. Am. Dietetic Assoc. 74(1):41-46, January, 1979). The extra sweetness of fructose has allowed the formulation of foods with equivalent sweetness to sucrose sweetened foods, but such foods would contain less sweetener and, therefore, fewer calories.
Sources of fructose for such uses have been crystalline fructose and 90% fructose corn syrup. The crystalline fructose product is expensive as compared to sucrose, while the 90% fructose corn syrup is sold only as a liquid product.
The blending of sweeteners to developed synergism has been reported by Hyvonen et al (J. Food Sci. 43:251-254, 1978). Synergism is inferred when the sweetness of a mixture is greater than the sum of its components. However, the quantitive measurement of synergism is difficult. The Hyvonen group studied synergism between fructose and saccharin and other sweeteners. They reported the synergism between fructose and saccharin was found to be the greatest when the sweeteners were present in almost equal proportions in the mixture.
A readily soluble sweetener composition was reported by Pitchen et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,303,684 issued Dec. 1, 1984. This sweetener composition contains 15 to 65% fructose, from 15-30% of low D.E. (Dextrose Equivalent) dextrinized starch and from 30 to 65% sucrose. The composition is spray dried under specific conditions to yield a low density sweetener.
Doty and Vanninen (Food Technology - (11):34-38, 1975) reported a synergistic sweetness effect between fructose and sucrose. A 10% water solution of a mixture of 60% fructose and 40% sucrose, based on solids content was reported to be about 1.3 times as sweet as a 10% pure sucrose solution and 1.1 times as sweet as a 10% pure fructose solution.
Key factors in determining the perceived sweetness and suitability of various sweeteners in foodstuffs are the effects of other food ingredients, such as acids and flavors.
The effect of acid on sweeteners has been reported by Cardello et al (J. Food Sci. 44:748-751, 1979). They summarized previous studies by stating acids have been shown to have a wide variety of effects on subjective sweetness. These researchers reported their own results by stating "in the more acidic solutions, no advantage of fructose over sucrose is found at any sugar concentration".
It is an object of this invention to provide a dry sweetener composition that has sweetness greater than sucrose so that food products containing less sweetener can be formulated. Another object is to provide a dry sweetener composition that can be formulated into food products with reduced acid and/or flavor levels as products sweetened with sucrose.
Throughout the specification and claims, all ratios and percentages are stated on a weight basis and temperatures are in degrees Celsius unless otherwise indicated.